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Travel Fun: Check our geography quiz answers here

How'd you do on our annual geography quiz? Read the answers here to find out.

This mountain in Europe has several names. We know it as the Matterhorn but Italians call it Monte Cervino. (Toronto Star file photo)

Fri., Dec. 28, 2012

Answers to geography quiz

1. The Amazon was named for the women warriors of Greek mythology who supposedly had their right breasts removed to improve their archery or their javelin throwing, depending on the story. Historians note that the mastectomies were not part of the original legend and don’t make much sense anatomically or athletically, either.

2. It’s free.

3. Yellowstone National Park in the U.S.

4. Boston uses the CharlieCard in honor of a fictional passenger in a song made famous by the Kingston Trio. Charlie was riding the subway when the fare went up, and, without an extra nickel to pay the newly imposed “exit fee,” was forced to “ride forever ‘neath the streets of Boston.” In the song, Charlie’s wife goes down to the Scollay Square station each day and hands him a sandwich through an open window. Why she doesn’t just hand him a nickel is a question best left to a marriage counselor.

5. The English Channel.

6. Ophidiophobics have a fear of snakes. Narcisse Snake Pits in Manitoba have the world’s highest concentration of red-sided garter snakes, while Newfoundland has no snakes at all. Well, almost no snakes. The CBC reported in 2010 that a few have apparently hitchhiked their way into Newfoundland on hay bales.

7. Darjeeling, India

8. The Aegean, Homer

9. Nepal, the 5-rupee note.

10. In New York Harbor, where it is more commonly known as the Statue of Liberty.

11. Quebec City.

12. South Sudan, which split off from Sudan in July 2011.

13. Dublin, Ireland.

14. False. Brazil was named not for the Brazil nut, but for the Brazilwood tree (which is not where Brazil nuts come from.) (And no other nations are named for a nut, either.)

15. Canada. Its highest peak, Mount Logan, is 5,959 meters.

16. The Crown Jewels are kept in the Tower of London.

17. Australia.

18. Mombassa.

19. The Red Crescent.

20. No. The Tropic of Cancer runs a few miles north of Havana and Cabo San Lucas.

21. The South Pole is colder because it’s 2,743 meters above sea level, thanks to very thick sheet ice. The North Pole sits on just a few feet of ice, and occasionally on open water.

22. Georgia.

23. Ecuador is named for the equator – zero degrees latitude.

24. The Black Sea.

25. The Suez Canal is longer and older. It was 164 km long when it opened in 1869 but later lengthened to 191 km. The Panama Canal is 77 km long; it opened in 1914.

26. “The abode of snow” is the literal translation from Sanskrit of “Himalaya.”

27. Tasmania.

28. Guyana, which obtained its independence from Britain in 1966.

29. O’Hare Airport. Its original name, Orchard Field, is why the airport code is ORD.

30. Hungary. People outside of Hungary usually call the language “Hungarian.”

31. No. In France, a Hotel de Ville is a city hall.

32. A statue of Admiral Nelson, who commanded the British fleet that destroyed the combined French and Spanish fleets near Cape Trafalgar, Spain, in 1805. Nelson died in the battle.

33. Australia.

34. Little Rock, Arkansas.

35. Ecuador and Chile.

36. In Mecca, Saudi Arabia. It’s the most sacred shrine in Islam.

37. The Orient Express. A private company, Venice Simplon-Orient-Express Ltd., occasionally operates a luxury excursion train along the same route.

38. Sweden.

39. Winnie the Pooh got his name from “Winnie,” a black bear cub that served as mascot for a regiment from Winnipeg, Canada, in World War I.

40. Alas, no. The Coriolis Effect, created by the earth’s rotation, causes hurricanes and ocean currents to rotate clockwise south of the equator and counterclockwise north of it, but sinks, bathtubs and swimming pools are far too small to be affected.

41. Asia, which is a little over 17 million square miles, is larger than the surface of the moon, which is a bit under 15 million square miles.

42. Osaka. Each is the third-largest city in its nation and, at the time the nickname caught on, both were heavily industrialized.

43. At the time of the Pentagon’s construction in 1941-42, segregation laws in Virginia, where it is located, required separate bathrooms for whites and blacks. Signs identifying them as such were never put up, probably because President Roosevelt had banned discrimination in the federal government.

44. The Matterhorn. The peak straddles the border between Switzerland and Italy, but is not nearly as distinctive looking on the latter side.

45. Sudan is estimated to have about 225 pyramids, compared to about 140 in Egypt. Those in Sudan are typically shorter and steeper than their Egyptian counterparts.

46. At its deepest point, the Mariana Trench is about 10,973 meters below sea level. The summit of Everest is a bit over 8,839 meters above sea level.

47. India.

48. Cannes is at 43.55 degrees of latitude. Hamilton is a few km south of that, at 43.25 degrees.

49. Australian Prime Minister Harold Holt. Melbourne later named its municipal swimming pool after him.

50. China drives on the right, except for the former British colony of Hong Kong and the former Portuguese colony of Macau, which drive on the left. (The latter because it used to import most of its cars from the former.)

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